Circulating hot-air furnace



Aug. 21, 1951 c. s. BESSER 2,564,775

CIRCULATING HOT AIR FURNACE Filed July 21, 1948 s Sheets-Sheet 1('HFJELES S, BESSE E.

Patented Aug. 21', I951 CIRCULATING HOT-AIR FURNACE Charles S. Besser,Charlotte, N. 0.

Application July 21, 1948, Serial No, 39,837

6 Claims.

This invention relates to hot air furnaces and more especially to a hotair furnace having a blower fan therein for circulating air through thebuilding in which the heater is disposed.

The primary object of this invention is to provide a hot air furnacehaving at least two chambers therein, one of which has the heating andcirculating means disposed therein and the other of which is adapted todirect the movement of air toward the bottom of the heater to where itis connected to a suitable duct system disposed beneath the floor onwhich the heater is disposed for directing the air to the various roomsof a house.

It is another object of this invention to pro vide a hot air furnacehaving a blower fan associated therewith and disposed at the bottomthereof and having a fire box disposed above the fan to which isconnected and disposed thereabove a warm air radiator which is curved insuch a manner that the air directed upwardly by the blower fan will bedirected in an arcuate path through the upper portion of the furnaceinto a chamber which in turn directs the air downwardly to where thelower end of the furnace is connected to a suitable duct work fordirecting the air to various rooms of the house.

It is another object of this invention to provide a furnace which may bedisposed on the main floor of a house, which is particularly importantin the event that the house does not have a basement or that the houseis only excavated for a short distance, of say three feet, below thefloor of the house! This furnace. is so designed that duct work need notenter the room in which the furnace is disposed, inasmuch as the hot airfurnace is provided with a means for connecting the duct work throu hthe floor to the bottom of the furnace and then such work would extendbeneath the floor to the various rooms of the house.

Some of the objects of the invention having been stated, other objectswill appear as the description proceeds, when taken in connection withthe accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a top plan view of thehot air furnace before being installed in a house;

Figure 2 is an elevation lo king up a th lower side of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a front elevation of the furnace;

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view through the furnace taken alongthe line 44 in Figure 2, and, in addition, shows the furnace as it isinstalled in the utility room of a house and showing a part of the ductwork with which this furnace is adapted to be associated;

Figure 5 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line 55 in Figure3;

Figure 6 is an inverted plan view looking upwardly along the line 6 6 inFigure 2;

Figure 7 is a sectional plan view taken along the line 1-! in Figure 3;

Figure 8 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line 8*8 in Figure4.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, the numeral l0 broadlydesignates a casing in which the various parts of this furnace areadapted to be mounted. There are many types of joints that may be usedin assembling the various panels and other parts of this furnace andthese various panels are shown as being spot welded together merely as aconvenience in the description of the furnace.

The casing [0 comprises a front wall I I, a rear wall I2, right-hand andleft-hand walls I3 and It, respectively, a bottom panel l5 and a curvedupper portion It, all of which are joined together by any suitable meanssuch as welding. It is obvious that the walls ll, l2, l3 and 14 could bemade of one piece of material, if so desired.

The front wall II has a conventional door 20 therein which is hinged, asat 2| and '22, to the wall II and has a suitable handle 23 pivotallymounted, as at 24, on the door 20. This handle 23 has a catch portion 25integral therewith which is adapted to engage a mating catch member 23which is secured, as by a screw 27, to the front wall II, for securingthe door 20 in closed position! The front wall I I also has a removablepanel 30 secured thereto as by screws 3| (Figure 3). The left-hand wallI4 has an opening therein in which a suitable air filtering unit 32 ismounted and is secured to the vertical wall [4 by a suitable means suchas bolts 33 (Figures 3 and 4). Disposed in spaced relation to the sidewall I4 is a vertically disposed partition 34, the rear end of which iswelded to the vertically disposed rear wall l2 and the front end ofwhich is bent to the right in Figure 7 as at 34a and is secured, as bywelding, to the front wall ll adjacent the juncture of the right-:handside wall 13 and the front wall I l.

There is disposed in spaced relation to the bottom panel l5 ahorizontally disposed partition 35 which is secured as by welding, tothe vertical walls ll, l2 and M of the casing l0 and the verticallydisposed partition 34. It will be noted that this horizontally disposedpartition 35 is disposed adjacent the upper edge of the panel 30 3(Figure as well as the upper edge of the air filter unit 32 (Figure 4).

The horizontally disposed partition 35 has an opening 31 therein whichis disposed closely adjacent the rear wall I2 and in which is mountedthe funnel-shaped upper end of a blower fan housing 40. The blower fanhousing 40 has a suitable rotary fan 4| therein having a shaft 42 whichextends outwardly through and is journaled in the walls of the blowerfan housing 40.

A pulley 44 is fixedly mounted on one end of the shaft 42 (Figure 5) andhas a belt 45 mounted thereon, the belt 45 also being mounted on apulley 46 fixedly mounted on a shaft 41 extending from an electric motor48. The motor 48 has an electric wire 5| and another electric wire 52extending therefrom to a suitable source of electrical energy, notshown.

Welded to the front surface of the blower fan housing 40 is ahorizontally disposed plate 53 which projects outwardly having adiagonal bracing bar 54 welded to the outer end thereof, the other endof which is also welded to the front face of the blower fan housing 40.The motor 48 is secured to the plate 53 as by screws 55. The housing 40has an opening 60 on that side which is remote from the pulley 44 andthis opening 50 is disposed adjacent the air filtering unit 32 to thuspermit air to pass through this air filtering unit into the blower fanhousing 40 from whence it is forced upwardly by rotation of the fan 4|within the fan housing 40. It may be observed in Figure 5 that the panel3!] permits accessibility to the electric motor 48 and the blower fanhousing 40 associated therewith.

The lower edge of a vertically disposed panel 65 (Figure 5) is welded tothe top surface of the horizontally disposed partition 35 adjacent thefront edge of the opening 31, in which the upper end of the blower fanhousing 40 is mounted. This vertically disposed partition 65 is bentforwardly as at 66 in Figure 5, and then is bent upwardly to formanother vertically disposed partition 61.

The upper end of the partition 61 is connected to the rear edge of ahorizontally disposed partition 10, the front edge of which is welded tothe inner surface of the front wall I I. The vertically disposedpartitions 65 and 61 and the horizontally disposed portion 66, as wellas the partition I0, are welded at their opposite edges to the proximatesurfaces of the vertically disposed partition 34 and the left-hand wallI4 (Figure 6).

It is thus seen that the partitions 65 and 81 and the partitions 66 andI0, which are integral therewith, form a burner unit chamber I5 and aheating chamber 16 and the partition 34, the upper end of which isdisposed a substantial distance from the inner top surface of the upperportion I6, forms a third chamber 11. Disposed within the chamber I6 isa circular fire box 89 having a suitable refractory material 80a appliedto the inner walls thereof. This fire box 89 is supported on strap ironmembers 8| which are welded to the same and the lower ends of which areWelded to the upper surface of the horizontally disposed partition 35;and, as may be observed in Figure 4, one of these supports BI is weldedto the upper angulllarly disposed wall of the blower fan housing Thewall of the fire box 80 is penetrated by a horizontally disposed tubularaccess member 85 (Figure 5) which also penetrates the verticallydisposed partition 61 and has a flanged portion 86 thereon which ispenetrated by bolts 81 for securing the tubular member to the partition51.

This tubular member 85 extends beyond the partition 61, to the left inFigure 5, and has threadably mounted thereon a tubular port hole memberhaving a cover 9| over the outer end thereof which is pivotally secured,as at 92, to the tubular port hole member 90.

The partition 65 is penetrated by a conventional blow type oil burnerhaving a flanged portion 96 thereon for securing the oil burner 95 .tothe vertically disposed partition 65, as by bolts 91. The oil burner 95has an electric motor I00 integral therewith which is a conventionalpart of the burner 95 and has electric wires I00 and I02 connectedthereto which extend to a suitable source of electrical energy, notshown.

A The oil burner 95 extends beyond the partition 95 and through anopening I05 in the wall of the circular fire box 80 and this oil burnerhas a noz zle I06 on the end thereof which is within the circular firebox 80 and from which the flame of the oil burner is projected to thusheat the air in the circular fire box 80 and heat is transmitted throughthe walls of the fire box to heat the air in the chamber I6 in thecasing II).

It may be observed in Figure 4 that there is disposed above the circularfire box 80, and being in spaced relation thereto, an arcuately curvedtubular radiator I II! which is rectangular in cross-section and ispositioned in spaced relation to the fire box 80. The fire box 80 may besup ported by supporting strips III connected to the partition 34. I n

This radiator I III also has a vertically disposed tubular portion I I5which is rectangular in crosssection and this vertically disposedportion, as well as the portion I ID are interconnected and are closedat their remote ends as at I I6 and I IT. The radiator I I0 is of onepiece welded construction. The lower wall of the radiator I III ispenetrated by a pipe I20, the lower end of which eneg trates the upperwall of the circular fire box 80 and there is a similar pipe |2| whichextends from the vertical wall of the firebox 80 and also penetrates theinner vertical wall of the vertically disposed portion 5 of the radiatorI I0 and it is thus seen that the flame from the burner 95 heats the airwithin the fire box 80 which also passes through the pipes I20 and I2|into the radiator III) and the portion H5. The radiator I I0 has adischarge pipe I I2 extending upwardly therefrom and which penetratesthe curved upper portion I 6 of the casing III for discharging the gasescreated by the combustion of fuel in the burner 95 and, as may beobserved in Figure 4, this discharge pipe is adapted to be connected toa suitable stack or the like I23, the other end of which is mounted in aconventional thimble I25 which is disposed in a conventional chimney I26having a flue I21 therein.

When the circulating furnace is installed as shown in Figure 4, it isusually supported on a floor F supported on floor joists I50 which arein turn supported on a foundation I5I. It will be noted that the chamber11 extends from top to bottom of the casing I0 and the bottom edges ofthe walls I3 and I4 and portions of the bottom edges of the walls II andI2 are connected to a suitable duct I55, which penetrates the floor Fand the lower end of which is connected to a conventional plenum I53from which branch ducts I51 extend to the various rooms of the house.

Assuming that the flame is being ejected from the musk of h 911. 0 2 95.it. is Seen that th air wit n t hamber 1 wil be heated by th circular fie o wan th fan 1 Within the fan hou n 4 i r tat d e a w l b d awn hrouthe air lte .52, through e o ening ti) in the wall of the blower fanhousing .411

and will be forced upwardly by rotation of the fan 4| This will causethe heated air surrounding the circular fire box at to move upwardly,and this is indicated by the arrows in Figure .4, and due to the arcuateshape of the radiator I Ii), the air will be forced in an arcuate pathpast the upper and lower surfaces of the radiator H0 and and will thenbe forced into the duct I55'and .to the various rooms of the house.

It is thus seen that I have provided a hot air circulating furnacehaving means for directing the heated air downwardly within the furnacewhereby the furnace is connected to a duct work mounted adjacent thelower end of the furnape and although a duct penetrates the floor onwhich the furnace is supported, the duct work need not enter the room inwhich the furnace is disposed in order to cooperate with the chambersthrough which the air is directed in the furnace to the duct work.

In the drawings and specification there has been set forth a preferredembodiment of the in,- vention, and although specific terms areemployed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only, and notfor purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined inthe claims.

I claim:

1. A hot air furnace adapted to rest on the floor of a room andcomprising a casing having a closed upper end and having a partitionforming a pair of chambers therein interconnected at the top thereof, afire box disposed within one of the chambers and being closed at itslower and upper ends, said fire box being spaced from the walls of thecasing to provide an air circulation space for air to be heated, meansfor directing a flame into the fire box, a blower fan disposed below thefire box for directing air upwardly around the fire box, a curved hollowradiator disposed above the fire box and spaced from the upper end ofthe fire box and also spaced from the closed upper end of the casing andhaving one end adjacent the open upper end of the other chamber, aninterconnecting pipe between one end of the radiator and the top of thefire box and an interconnecting pipe between the other end of theradiator and one side of the fire box, the fiame within said fire boxand said radiator serving to heat the air directed upwardly and aroundthe fire box and the radiator by the fan, to thus direct the air in anarcuate path at the upper end of the casing and into the top of theother chamber, said other chamber being adapted to extend through thefioor on which th casing is adapted to be supported, and a draft flueconnected to the radiator and extending through the upper end of thecasing.

2. In a hot air circulating furnace comprising a casing having avertical partition forming first and second chambers and having a closedtop and bottom, the partition stopping short of the top of the casing toprovide communication between the upper ends of the two chambers, the

fi st cham e extending .irom top to bottom of the casing in which afirebox is disposedpsaid fi e ,box hav n .a closed .top and bottom andhaving wall spaced from the side Walls of said chamber .,to provide arestricted pa sa e for the air togpassentirelyaround the fire box as'itis heated ,by the fire box, a blower fan disposed below the lower end-ofthe firebox and fordirect- ,ing the airupwardly-around the firebox, thetop o t ca neb ine inspaced e ation t0 the upp r endpof the fire box,thus providing a passageway commun i with the second chamber, ,a hollowradiator disposed above and in spacedrelation to the upper .end ,of the,fire box and also ,in spaced relation to the lower surface of the v topof the casing and having one of its ends communicating with the top vofthe fire box and hayingitsother end connected to theside of the firebox, a vent ,pipe connected to an intermediate Portion of the radiatorand penetrating the top of the casing for allowing the products ofcombustion to escape from the fire box, whereby the air directed overthe top of the fire box is ,directed into the second chamber to directthe .air downwardly, the second chamber being adapted to extend throughthe bottom of the casing.

3. A hot air furnace comprising a casing closed ,at its top and bottom,a tubular fire .box disposed within the casing and being spaced from thewalls of the fire box to provide an air space entirely surrounding thefire box, a suction blower fan disposed within the casing and below thefire box for drawing air into the casing and forcing it upwardly aroundthe fire box, a hollow member disposed between the top of the fire boxand the top of the casing and having portion extending .dgwn along oneside of the fire box and connected by duets with the interior of the topof the fire box and with one side of the fire box, a

smoke pipe leading from the hollow member through the top of the casingfor carrying off th products of combustion, a duct disposed within thecasing and having an open upper end communicating with the upperinterior portion of the casing adjacent said hollow member and extendingdownwardly to a point below the bottom of the furnace.

4. A hot air furnace comprising a casing having a closed top and bottomand having first and second vertically extending compartments thereincommunicating with each other at their upper ends, a fire box disposedwithin the first compartment and having its bottom and sides and upperend closed, a hollow radiator member disposed above and on one side ofthe fire box and having piped connections with the top of the fire boxand one side of the fire box, a fuel oil burner projecting through oneside of the fire box and into the fire box, a smoke pipe leading fromsaid radiator through the top of said casing for carrying oil productsof combustion, said fire box being of less transverse dimension than thewidth of the first compartment to thus provide an air space surroundingthe fire box, a suction blower fan housing disposed below the fire boxand having an intake portion for receiving air through an opening in thecasing and having a discharge portion for forcing air upwardly aroundthe fire box and around the exterior of the radiator disposed on top ofand on one side of the fire box, the second compartment extending to apoint below the bottom of the casing for conducting heated airdownwardly and away from the furnace after it has been forced upwardlyaround the fire box and around the radiator in the top of the casing.

5. A hot air furnace comprising a casing having a closed top and bottom,a vertically extending partition forming a first compartment within thecasing, a fire box disposed within said compartment and spaced from saidcompartment partition and from the walls of the casing, a suction blowerfan disposed belowvthe fire box, one side Of the casing having anopening through which air is drawn by the suction blower fan, aconnection between the output side of the suction blower fan and thelower portion of the compartment within which the fire box is disposedwhereby air is forced upwardly on all sides of the fire box, said casinghaving a second compartment disposed near the top of the casing andhaving communications with the first compartment and with a thirdcompartment formed by the firstnamed partition and a portion of the sidewalls of the casing thus forming a duct through which the air is forceddownwardly, a hollow radiator member disposed in the second compartmentand having its two ends connected to the top and one side of the firebox and disposed in the path of air currents passing from thefirst-named compartment and through the second compartment anddownwardly in the third compartment, the hollow radiator having a pipeextending upwardly therefrom through the top of the casing for theescape of the products of combustion, heat generating means disposed inthe bottom of the fire box, the third compartment having a ductextending downwardly therefrom to a point below the bottom of thefurnace.

6. In a heating system for a building, a hot air furnace adapted to bedisposed on the floor 8 of one of the rooms of the building, said hotair furnace comprising a casing, a vertically extending partitiondividing the easing into two compartments, a fire box disposed withinone of the compartments and spaced from all of the side walls of thesaid first compartment, a hollow radiator member disposed above and onone side of the fire box and having a piped connection to the top of thefire box and also having a piped connection to one side of the fire box,heat generating means disposed in the bottom of the fire box, a smokepipe leading from said radiator through said casing for carrying off theproducts of combustion, a suction blower fan disposed below the fire boxand having an intake portion for receiving air through an opening in thecasing and having a discharge portion for forcing air upwardly aroundthe fire box and around the exterior of the radiator disposed on top ofand on one side of the fire box, the upper ends of the two compartmentscommunicating with each other and the second compartment having a ductconnected to the lower end thereof and adapted to extend through thefloor on which the furnace is adapted to be rested.

CHARLES S. BESSER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,144,469 Giles June 29, 19152,001,531 Hall May 14, 1935 2,022,333 Woolley NOV. 26, 1935 2,420,875Frentzel May 20, 1947

